Lakshmi Iyer
India Post News Service
FREMONT, CA: The Festival of Globe (FOG) Health Fair was held on Saturday, August 17th in Fremont, California as part of the 32nd India Day Fair (Mela) and Parade.
This year, there were a lot more participating healthcare professionals. Dr. Romesh Japra, the founder and Convener of the Festival of Globe (FOG) along with a few other doctors, started offering free checkups to the needy through Health Fairs and clinics at the Fremont temple from the first India Day Fair and Parade.
This event has grown to include alternative medical streams such as Ayurveda, and Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM).
The returning participants from last year were:
- Washington Hospital (sponsor)
- Kaiser Permanente and its stroke reduction team
- Anita Srivastava, the founder of mental wellness company Happiness Factors
- Dentist Dr. Sheila Dobee, and
- University of East-West Medicine – a college of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) in Sunnyvale, and
- Psychiatrist Dr. Kapil Chopra
The new participants this time were:
Kiniksa (sponsor) – a pharmaceutical company headquartered in Massachusetts with an office in California, and international branches in the UK and Switzerland
TheraWin (sponsor) – an online multilingual platform featuring therapists focused on immigrants
Five Branches University – another TCM institute that has branches in San Jose and Santa Cruz
Manju Kohli – Ayurvedic doctor and founder of Ayurhitam
Yoga Bharati, and Champions Clinic
The last organization is a collaboration between UCSF and the Foundation for Vascular Cures. In addition to routine vitals such as blood pressure and glucose, they also screen for peripheral artery disease using the Toe Brachial Index measurement. They had a large team of enthusiastic UCSF medical students.
Dr. Leena Gupta, an Internal Medicine doctor, who was one of the coordinators for the health fair, also participated.
This year, Thinn Aye and her team from Alondra Home Care, a company that provides caregiver services, offered volunteer support for the event.
Naresh Sodhi of Pacific Cardiology Associates and Vidya Sethuraman handled sponsorships for the Health Fair. Lakshmi Iyer (this correspondent), the other coordinator, and Sujata Shrivastava were the lead volunteers at the event.
A large number of attendees availed of the free consultations and screenings to get an insight into their health.